Virat Kohli's misfortune with the toss continued as the coin landed in the favour of the opposition. Pant elected to bowl first on the slow Ahmedabad strip. While Delhi Capitals have made one forced change to their playing eleven by including pacer Ishant Sharma in place of R Ashwin - who has taken a break from the league.
RCB, on the other hand, have included Rajat Patidar and Daniel Sams and rested Navdeep Saini and Daniel Christian.
After winning the toss, Pant said, "We will look to bowl first. The wicket looks dry, so we want to bowl before the dew sets in. Nothing much to talk about the previous game. We should have won the game before the Super Over. Ishant is playing in place of Ashwin."
Kohli too conceded that he would have bowled first had he won the toss. "We would have bowled as well. Dew is a big factor here. I think it came as early as the first innings. So we got to set a nice foundation, need to have wickets in hand and go hard. We need to keep that intent going. Saini makes way for Rajat Patidar, he will bat at 3 to give us a bit more batting. Daniel Sams replaces Dan Christian," said Kohli.
The pitch and dew factors must have compelled Pant to bowl first in their first match in Ahmedabad. The commentator Kevin Pietersen in his pitch report said: "Last night it (the pitch) started slow. Later in the game, the dew factor is an issue. I think it will play a big role in what happens at the toss. The winning captain is probably going to say we will bowl."
Playing XIs:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Washington Sundar, Daniel Sams, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj.
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Steven Smith, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan.